I went to the shoe repair shop in the city next to the one that I work in. There is a gentleman that works there that has been doing it for like ever. He has also been incredibly testy and kind of short with you. He is inexpensive and does awesome work and is honest with you and will not do work that he feels should not be done. He will tell you he cannot do it instead of taking your money and making you think he did or making you unhappy with the result.

I went back to my co-workers, after I found he was still in business, to tell them he was still working and still cranky! I let everyone know not to expect fluff, but to expect the crank.

Today, when I went to pic up my Dansko clogs he was stretching, I found out why he has been so cranky. His wife has Alzheimer’s Disease and has been battling many health problems as a result. He is caring for her at home and has a nurse during the day so he can work, then he goes home to care for her. As he talked about his wife, I saw the tears start to form in his eyes. I felt that instantaneous feeling of GUILT for running my mouth to everyone about how cranky he was.

I listened to him talk about how he had built his work day around the care giver taking care of his wife. From working in this industry for the last several years, I know it is not cheap. Here he is in his advanced years also, dealing with all of this. I am not sure if he has any support in the evenings and weekends, but now I understand that he may be a little short.

I talked with him a bit about where I work and the resources we have to offer as well as some other resources available to him. Hopefully, he will avail himself of them.

When I got back to work, I let all of my co-workers and everyone I told he was cranky that I took it all back and why. I then asked all of them to be sure to take their shoes to him for work.

I will try, but won’t promise, not to make snap judgments about people until I have spent a bit of time in their shoes.

I was watching Sunday morning (as I do faithfully every Sunday morning) and saw this segment by Sanjay Gupta. It talked about all the bad stuff that sugar causes in the human body. I started to identify with parts of it. Like the part the more you eat, the more you crave.

I would buy a box of cookies and could never stop at just one. Some might call that willpower, but it seemed to be beyond that for me.

After watching that segment and watching the video above, I have decided to cold turkey off of the extra sugars in my life. So, as of Sunday, no more sweets or candy. And you know what? I can already feel a difference. I am no longer famished before meals. I would often have a sweet before meals and then something for dessert, too. That craving has stopped!

I write this blog post to help keep me honest on this mission and along the way, I might just loose some weight, too. I confess I ate a LOT of sugar!

I am sure you are all familiar with the saga now. In early November I learned that I had herniated a disc in my back. It is the very last one that sits on top of the pelvis at the bottom of the spine. And for a little extra agony it was pressing into my sciatic nerve. I had no idea it was my back that was hurt as the excruciating pain was all in my left leg. Stabbing, cruel, mean, make you “cry until it stops” kind of pain!

As I began my healing odyssey I learned so many new things, like that sciatic nerves do not like heat. That heat makes it worse. This was learned after a week of heating it per my primary care doctor! So it was learned the hard way.

As you go you learn how to treat thyself. You sit straighter, you walk straighter, you learn to roll on your back to put your pants on so you don’t have to lift your legs. You learn alternative methods to put on socks, and you learn (most of all) how very few slip in type shoes you have that you can wear to work!

When you head back to work you learn to work in PT appointments during your lunch hour, after work, and learn how to make up the time you miss for those appointments. It is all part of the “medical” process. You learn how to ice yourself while you are working by placing the ice pack on your chair and sitting on it! Fonzie would be so proud! LOL!

You learn things about the healing process of the spine and the sciatic nerve. That it is slow and it has a mind of its own. That it doesn’t work on your timetable, but ITS timetable and you are just along for the ride. Being a person that hates to sit around and take it easy, at times I have overdone it a bit, but the next day it reminds me that it is there and it is healing so I slow it back down and give it the time it needs.

I learned something new last week at PT. The fact that the pain is moving up my leg and toward the injured place on my back is very good. It means it is healing. So today I announced to my Physical Therapist that “I have never been so happy to have a pain in my ass!” For 3 weeks it was parked in my left thigh just below my butt and over the weekend it moved to my butt cheek. I was ecstatic. Of course as the nerve pain goes away I am starting to feel my back a bit more. But we are keeping on! Twice weekly PT and the anti-inflammatory to take the edge off. I may, after this prescription is out, try it for a bit without it. I think I am at that point.

So sorry that the blog has been so dormant, but I have been trying to get better and behaving myself. I have so much I have seen that I want to do. I brought home my new needle felting machine right before Christmas and want desperately to try it out. So cross your fingers as I can finally see the light at the end of the LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGEST tunnel I have been through thus far. I appreciate each and every one of you for hanging in there with me. Y’all are the best!

Today was my first day in Physical Therapy. It was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Before my visit at the initial consultation he mentioned that word that causes fear in my soul, treadmill! Thank God it was on 1.5 and it was only 8 minutes. The session was not bad at all. I feel surprisingly well after it and am hopeful that it will do the trick.

I am working on a project that I hope to have pics up next week of the finished project.

I hope all is going well for you and that the holidays are not flying by too fast!

Do you see that double shaded line at the base of the spine? The one that sits right above the pelvis? That is my culprit! There is a hernia on the back of the vertebrae which is pushing against my sciatic nerve. My Physical Therapist showed me today.

He also confirmed that it is very treatable. I have some home exercises and will see him twice a week for three weeks. He is confident it will get better. “We” are going to push that herniated place back into a round disc shape. Think of your vertebrae like a tire filled with jelly. In my cast the tire has a bubble that “we” must push back in. Sounds like fun, huh?

At least everyone is telling me the same. That it is treatable and will get better!

Just remember, peeps, be good to your spine! ‘Cause it can be a pissy hacked off witch of a thing if you don’t!

I open my blog reader, Bloglines, yesterday and this is what greets me. They are closing Bloglines as of October 1st along with directions to export your blogs so you can take them to another reader. WTF? No warning, no so sad to tell you, just we are closing up shop and here is how to take you stuff with you when you go.

I moved on over to Google’s reader. After removing all the crap sites that they “place” in your reader. I added all of my blogs. Then I looked for the mark all read button. Bloglines had one. You know, for the times you just want to start fresh. They don’t have one. I had to click on EACH AND EVERY ONE individually to mark it as read. I had read them before I made the switch. It took forever!!!!!!!!

On the plus side, it seems to be going okay. I guess change is not a bad thing when it is forced on you against your will!

I admit that I wear an apron when in the kitchen. I wear the one that covers the entire front of your outfit. I am messy and this helps keep me clean. It also lets me concentrate on what I am making instead of the splatters or plops.

Since I have started wearing aprons I find that I cook better. Perhaps, it is channeling the spirit of Donna Reed or Harriet Nelson or maybe Alice from the Brady Bunch. Perhaps it is that I am hungry! Who knows, but I wonder.

Do you wear an apron when you cook? Do you own an apron? If not, what is stopping you from owning one and using it?

My spirit has been kind of restless lately. My to do list continues to grow, but I lack the motivation or the focus to get on it. I wander to and fro trying to stay with something to completion, but it just keeps piling up.

I have many unfinished and in various stages of incomplete projects, but when I decide to stay in and buckle down, I find a reason to head out. It seems that I am lacking focus.

When I was a little girl, so my Momma told me, I had really blonde hair. Some might say I was towheaded. I have seen the pictures of my little girlhood and in not one of them do I have light blonde hair. Since the pictures are mostly black and white it looks light gray. I remember seeing, at one point, a cut piece of my hair from my baby book and you guessed it, not light blonde.

Today my hair is peppered with grey. Slightly more than peppered to be honest! Under the pepper is a snatch of mousy blonde hair. Dark. blonde. hair. For years I tried to turn the color back to the towhead of my past and bleached, dyed, and peroxided it. And then I tried to make it curly. I permed, and permed and permed and colored, and bleached, and bleached…until…

It started to break off. I always tried to have long hair and for the longest time wore it just above my shoulders in all one length. Then I gave in to what I knew all along that my hair looks better short. So several years ago I, after talking my hairdresser down off the “are you insane legde??” I started the process of shortening it. It took us a few months to get her to cut it as short as I wanted it. Then when we arrived at the short place she said, “Wow, you were right. It IS better this short!” And short it has been since.

It is easy, it is carefree, it dries with a towel rubbing and styles with a few spritzes of spray gel. My new stylist cuts it with a razor to give it a bit of texture. Easy, breezy and carefree!

It is also very thin and fine. Baby fine, to be precise. It is not thinning, it has always been this way. My Mom had the same hair and both she and I learned to live with it. Others try to give suggestions for how to improve it. Have you tried layers? Check. Tried Rogaine? Check, and Rogaine only regrows lost hair mine was always this and never list. My Grandma even suggested that I try mange soap (like for dogs that have mange and lose their hair). Thanks, Grandma! That does wonders for your 8 year old Grandaughter’s self esteem. Amazing that I still remember that almost 39 years later!

Why did I share all of this? Who knows? I think it was because of this thrifted picture I found recently.

And now for the another…

For the last few weeks I have not been feeling the crafty mojo. Just kind of going through the motions and trying to make myself create. As you know, that stifles the creative process considerably. So, I am taking a bloggy break until the 1st of March. Just to kind of regroup and get myself centered again. Back on the crafty track, so to speak.

I have a few things that I need to get working on, some projects I have been puttering around with in my mind and some that are just tiny seeds. Speaking of seeds…I spent most of last night separating my seed beads into tubes that I bought and man, do I have a lot of those puppies!

So take care of yourselves, have fun making and creating! I will be back with you very, very soon!

Quote O’ The Month

"What this world needs
is a new kind of army
- the army of the kind."
~Cleveland Amory